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Monday, June 18, 2012

Loaves of hearty, healthy, reasonably priced whole wheat bread is available at many Publix Bakeries.

Simply Living
June 18, 2012

A hearty, healthy loaf of whole wheat bread is not easy to
find.

I don’t consume much bread but when I do, I want it to be as
good for me as possible. I’m not
concerned with a gluten-free diet and while I’m allergic to many things, wheat
isn’t among them. I simply prefer my choice
of sandwich breads to be of the one-hundred-percent whole grain variety. I have no desire to ingest white flour misleadingly
labeled ‘wheat flour’ nor do I want to eat preservatives, dough stabilizers,
hydrogenated oil, additives with long, unpronounceable names, excessive salt or
artificially added vitamins and minerals.

Pure
and simple loaves are what I'm after. I also want the slabs of chewy
goodness to be readily available and competitively prices with other
store-bought loaves.

Until recently, unless I baked it myself,
purchased a frozen product or placed an order online, the type of
whole-wheat bread I was looking for was practically impossible to find
locally.

That isn't true in other parts of the country. When we
used to visit Ralph's mother in Seattle, we frequented a Great Harvest
Bread Company store where we were constantly awed by their wonderful
selection of freshly-baked whole grain loaves. Great Harvest Bread is a
franchise with locations across the country. Unfortunately, their sole
Florida location is 147 miles away in Amelia Island. Too far to go when I
crave a sandwich.

When we lived on Cape Cod in the 1970s and
1980s, Ralph and I owned a natural-food store in which we devoted a
substantial amount of shelf space to whole-wheat loaves. One of our
favorites was a round sourdough loaf made by a central Massachusetts
company called Baldwin Hill Bakery. My husband's broccoli-cheese
sandwiches never tasted as good as they did when wedged between two
slices of that hearty bread.

But like many of our once-favorite
products, Baldwin Hill is no longer available. Production of their
signature round brick oven loaves ended when Vermont Bread Company
bought the bakery. Ralph and I still reminisce about those Baldwin Hill
loaves, especially when we are reading labels on commercially available
breads.

"Look at this," Ralph said one day while we were checking
out the fresh bread selection at the Whole Food Market in Orlando.
"Hardly any are 100 percent whole wheat. They've either got 'wheat
flour' in them — another word for white flour — or they're gluten-free,
made from millet or some other grain. Why aren't there whole-wheat
breads like there used to be?"

Why, indeed?

As it turns out,
the very bread we've searched for so fruitlessly is now right there at
our local grocery. I recently discovered that Publix Bakery makes three
affordably priced loaves — Seeded Whole Wheat Bread from 100 percent
whole-grain wheat as well as a Honey Whole Wheat and Cinnamon Whole
Wheat. One-pound loaves sell for $3.19, while their 2-pound, 3-ounce
counterparts are priced from $4.99 to $5.99 depending on variety.

The
ingredient list for all three breads is just the way I like them to be —
short and uncomplicated. The basic ingredients include whole-wheat
flour, water, honey, vital wheat gluten, yeast and salt. The cinnamon
loaf has the added ingredient of cinnamon while our favorite, Seeded
Whole Wheat Bread, contains the same ingredients plus sunflower, sesame
and poppy seeds.

Why consume chemical additives, preservatives and questionable sweeteners
like high-fructose corn syrup if you don't need to? I want the foods I
feed to my family to be as high quality as possible. Fortunately, thanks
to Publix Bakery, at least a couple affordable, good tasting
alternative whole-wheat breads are now available at most Publix
groceries.

"Ralph," I asked politely, "do you think you could make
broccoli-cheese sandwiches for dinner tonight? I got a loaf of the
Seeded Whole Wheat Bread at the store today and there are some side
shoots of broccoli that need picking in the garden."

He said he
would and I was delighted. Not only were we going to eat a meal I knew
was healthy and fresh, it would be one I didn't have to prepare.

Many people have asked for Ralph's broccoli-cheese sandwich recipe so I've included it below. If you try it, please let me know what you think:

Assemble ingredients including a spatula and a lid for the
frying pan. Spread a light coating of
olive oil on the frying pan (we use cast iron pans) and turn the heat to medium.

Spread garlic oil on one side of each of the two slices of
bread and set one slice aside. Take the
1st slice of bread and place it on the pan with the garlic oil side down. On top of the bread, place a slice or two of cheese,
the broccoli (and mushrooms and/or tomato slices, if desired) and top with more
cheese. Place the 2nd piece
of bread on top of the cheese with the garlic oil side facing up and press down
on the sandwich with the spatula before putting on the lid.

Check frequently and adjust the heat accordingly. If the heat is too high, the bread will burn,
if it is too low, it will take too long to cook.

After about 5 minutes, flip the sandwich over – you might
need to use two hands to do this - press down on it again with the spatula then
continue cooking with the lid on. Again,
check frequently and as soon as it looks like the cheese has started to melt,
turn off the heat. Use the spatula to remove
the sandwich from the pan.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Baby
birds have it tough. Raccoons, snakes, squirrels, opossums, dogs, cats
and even other birds are among the many predators eager to devour tiny
hatchlings.

Humans are also drawn to these dainty dollops of
feather and flesh but for a different reason. People simply find baby
birds adorable. Anybody who has watched bird eggs develop into fluffy
fledglings can't help but feel a sense of delighted attachment to the
tiny chirpers.

That's
how Ralph and I felt about the Carolina wren babies that nested in our
garage this spring. Their woven cave of bamboo leaves and small twigs
was wedged in between a messy scattering of boxes and other detritus
that should have been tidied away well before bird-nesting season.

Carolina
wrens have a propensity to build nests in close proximity to their
human neighbors. The small cinnamon-colored birds with a white stripe
above their eyes are quick workers. Both partners can build a nest in about the same time it takes two people to, say…pick up supplies at Home Depot, stop at the grocery store, go to the bank
and enjoy a leisurely lunch out. In other words, the wily birds took
advantage of the one time we forgot to close the garage doors when out
running errands.

When we came back from town, we were too preoccupied to notice the nest. By the time we did, it was too late.

"There are eggs in it!" Ralph reported after illuminating the cavernous clutch with a flashlight.

"We can't get rid of the nest now," I proclaimed, despite knowing the consequences their feathery presence would bring.

The two reasons we don't want birds nesting in the garage involve messes and wasps.

A
family of birds may be adorable but they can also be quite untidy. We
learned that the hard way the year a pair of mourning doves built their
nest atop the garage-door opener. As it turns out, dove droppings are
far from inconsequential, especially when multiplied by a family of
five.

The doves also taught us how readily mud daubers take
advantage of a sheltered area with easy access. When garage doors remain
open so nesting birds can fly in and out, wasps zoom inside as well.
The resulting dried-mud structures dot the garage ceiling and walls.
Although we have rarely been stung, it's unsettling to have so many
wasps living in a space we frequent on a daily basis.

Thanks to
the industrious wrens, however, thwarting wasps and avoiding messes
became a non-issue. Captivated by feathery cuteness, we refocused our
attention on the baby birds' development and welfare.
From eggs to hatchlings, Ralph and I checked their progress daily.

"Come look!" became our morning mantra followed by such statemens as, "They're getting so fluffy" and "Watch how they open their beaks when I make a kissy sound."

Day-old wrens open wide in anticipation of food

As
the babies grew bigger, so did our attachment. For about two weeks, I
snapped photos while Ralph peered more frequently into the nest of the
almost-ready-to-fledge birds. Then one day, as we drove into the garage after another trip to town, we found mama and papa wren in a frenzy.

"Maybe I parked the car too close to the shelf," I suggested, backing
out. "I bet the babies left the nest while we were in town and are
somewhere in the garage or the shed."

While we searched the garage and connecting shed for the fledglings, the parents continued to flit about and scold incessantly.

"Something's wrong," I said. "I can't find the babies anywhere."

I
was right. Something was wrong but we didn't find out exactly how bad
things were until the next day when Ralph called, "Come quick!"

There
behind the nest — the empty nest — wedged between the wall and the back
of the boxes was one sluggish rat snake with a telling bulge in its
midsection.

A thin rat snake with a telltale bulge

"Oh no!" I exclaimed. "A snake got them! All of them! No wonder the parents were frantic. That's so sad."

"But it's good for the snake," Ralph reminded.

I know he's right.

In
order to survive, wild animals must find food and that means one
critter's meal is another's loss. Baby birds have it tough, but so do
rat snakes and every other creature whose next meal depends upon what
they catch today.

Losing the baby wrens was upsetting, but life
goes on. The parent birds will try again in another location and perhaps
this time their babies will survive. As for us, we've added one more
reason to keep the garage doors closed: Prevent messes, thwart mud
daubers and avoid the sadness that comes with watching baby birds die to
nourish another animal's life.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Vultures have many names. When flying, they are a kettle. When perched, a
venue, a committee or a volt. But the label I find most fitting is when
a group of these large, black-feathered, bald-headed scavengers are
standing around the carcass of a recently killed animal. Then they
become a wake.

I
chanced upon a wake of vultures as I was heading out the driveway.
Although on my way to town, I put my mission on hold to investigate
theirs. What I observed piqued my curiosity about these
seldom-appreciated birds.

Two species of vultures live in Florida —
the turkey vulture and the black vulture. Both are carrion eaters that
make fast work of recently killed or decaying carcasses. The four birds I
saw were all black vultures (Coragyps atratus). Each of the 2-foot
tall, 4- to 6-pound creatures was fixated on the dead body of a mature
raccoon. So intent were the birds on their impending feast they barely
budged when I pulled up alongside and parked the car.

Vultures
have bodies well suited to their role as the animal kingdom's cleanup
crew. Their sharp, slightly hooked bills can tear through tough skin and
fur while their featherless heads make venturing after internal organs a
less sticky, messy affair. The bald heads of turkey vultures are red
while the bumpy-skinned tops of black vultures are black or gray.

In
addition to having different head colors, black vultures are smaller
than turkey vultures and only the tips of their wings are white while
the entire underside edge of turkey vulture wings is a grayish-white
color. Black vultures also have white legs, a feature turkey vultures
lack.

The two species have other differences as well. Turkey
vultures tend to be solitary animals that use their strong sense of
smell — a rare characteristic in birds — to pick up the odor of ethyl
mercaptan, a gas released just after an animal dies. Once a turkey
vulture picks up the scent of decay, it settles in for a prolonged
feast.

Unless it is chased away by a kettle of black vultures.

Black
vultures don't share their cousin's strong sense of smell or their
desire for solitude. They are pack animals, traveling, feeding and
roosting in groups. The food they eat is also different from what turkey
vultures consume.

While turkey vultures only eat carrion, black
vultures will occasionally attack vulnerable live animals like newborn
calves. They are also not above frequenting landfills, gleaning road
kill and stealing food away from their turkey vulture relatives.

I
don't know how the raccoon in my yard died or what killed it but as I
watched, its lost life provided others with a substantial meal. Rather
than rush in, the black vultures stood patiently around the ill-fated
mammal until one bird stepped forward to make the first move. After
that, much ripping and tearing ensued as the scavengers competed with
one another for prime pieces of meat.

It took about three days for
the vultures (with help from ants, flies, beetles and a neighbor's
stray dog) to convert the raccoon's fur-covered flesh into a scattering
of bones and teeth. By then, the vultures were gone, probably neck-deep
in other decaying matter.

Despite their diligent efforts to keep the planet free of decaying
bodies, we humans don't think much of vultures. If we give them any
thought at all, it is a dismissive disparaging one. They're ugly.
They're vulgar. They are harbingers of doom. But distasteful as it may
be to watch one animal plunge headfirst into another critter's carcass,
these solemn stalkers of the dead and dying play a vital role in the
circle of life.

No matter what they are called — a kettle,
committee, venue, volt or a wake — vultures do the dirty work of keeping
the world clean and for that, we should be grateful.

Welcome!

Hi! I'm Sherry Boas. Thank you for visiting my blog. As a freelance writer, my work has appeared in numerous publications and my SIMPLY LIVING column ran as a weekly feature in the Orlando Sentinel for the 10 years between 2006 and 2017. You can find all my old columns on this site plus many other essays, poems, photographs and videos. Take time to explore and come back often. If you have a comment, question or simply want to say hello, please do! I look forward to hearing from you!

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